We are happy to learn that Alejandro, Daniel, Feiyu, Omkar, and Shuhan have been selected to receive Travel Awards to attend Cell Bio 2025, the international conference hosted by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB).
Cell Bio is a flagship event that brings together scientists from across the globe to explore the frontiers of cell biology, biophysics, and cutting-edge imaging technologies — all central themes of our research at MEOW Lab. This year’s conference promises to be an exciting convergence of interdisciplinary innovation, and we are proud that our lab will be so well represented.
We can’t wait to see them share their work, connect with the broader scientific community, and bring back new ideas and inspiration to fuel our future discoveries.
Alejandro, Daniel, Feiyu, Omkar, Shuhan are selected for Travel Awards for Cell Bio 2025
NIH Quantum Sensing Technology Challenge Winners Announced
We are very happy that our research team behind the collaborative project Quantum-Assisted Volumetric Imaging AppaRatus (QAVIAR) for Fast and Background-Free 3D Imaging of Whole Live Animals,” was announced as a winner of Stage 1 of the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Quantum Sensing Technology Challenge.
This international collaboration has been a very fulfilling journey. Effective communications in the form of prompt email correspondence, regular Zoom meetings and frequent site visits between Team Hopkins and Team Tokyo helps us make good progresses. Thank you everyone!
Team Hopkins enjoyed lots of snacks from Tokyo (courtesy: Dr. Noboru Ikeya).
Good discussion over dinner with Noboru and Shogo at the end of a hot day in Tokyo (August 2025)- the mastermind Jonny was on vacation and missed the dinner.
Welcome Alejandro
MEOW has a returned member! We welcome Dr. Alejandro Sánchez-Pedreño Jiménez aboard, joining forces to study quantum biology and develop techniques to be applied in tissue engineering, imaging and beyond. Alejandro worked in MEOW lab back in 2023 as a visiting PhD student. Returning with a new title and job responsibility, we look forward to working with you, Alejandro!
Dr. Yen-Ping Hseuh visits MEOW lab
We are every honored to host Dr. Yen-Ping Hsueh, the Director of Max Plank Institute for Biology, for her visit to Johns Hopkins. Ping is an expert in inter-species interaction. Her research on the molecular mechanism behind the killing of worms by fungi is world-renowned. Ping gave a fascinating seminar talk “Fungi That Eat Worms: Nature’s Tiny Predators at Work” during her visit. We learned a lot!
Picture: Ping with MEOW lab members tour the Bloomberg building after a good lunch at the Telescope Institute (NASA) cafeteria.
Thank you for your visit. We hope there will be opportunities to work together!
Daniel passes GBO exam
Daniel passed his GBO exam. We were very happy! We jointly celebrated Junjie’s and Daniel’s successes for the dissertation defense and GBO exam, respectively, by gathering in our favorite water hole and clink glasses!
Congratulations Daniel- may you work like a juggernaut and collect more successes in your journey of scientific research!
Junjie defends his PhD dissertation
We are very happy to celebrate Junjie’s successful defense for his PhD dissertation. Junjie joined MEOW lab in 2019. The journey of his PhD training has been bumpy because of the pandemic. Yet, Junjie persevered. Junjie stayed productive despite the lockdown and published the first computational image processing paper in the lab. Later, he has become the most prolific PhD student in terms of publishing high-impact papers. We are very proud of your accomplishment Junjie. Congratulations!
Prof. Jonathan Woodward visits Hopkins
We welcome Prof. Jonathan Woodward from University of Tokyo for his much anticipated 5-day visit to Johns Hopkins and the lecture in the special seminar “Microspectroscopic Detection of Magnetic Field Sensitive Radical Pair Processes in Biological Systems”.
Jonny is the pioneer in quantum biology and our close collaborator in engineering magnetosensitive proteins to control biochemical reactions and modulate cell behaviors. Over the years, our two groups have made interesting findings together.
We were very excited to have Jonny visit us. Excitedly, we introduced landmarks in the Homewood campus, near the medical school and at the inner harbor.
Of course, we also dined together, exchanging scientific notes and sharing anecdotes.
We had a great time learning from Jonny and brainstorming new experiments. We are very glad to return the great hospitality provided by Jonny and his wonderful group when Yun visited Tokyo earlier this year.
Thank you for the collaboration- we are very fortunate.
Dr. Taro Kunitomi visits MEOW lab
We are happy to have Dr. Taro Kumitomi from Juntendo University visit us on this breezy Friday in May.
As a physician, Taro came to receive a short-term clinical training at Johns Hopkins Hospital for two weeks. He efficiently combined the visit to MEOW lab in the same trip.
We exchanged ideas about research in biophysics and medicine. Taro participated in our lab meeting and toured our laboratories.
We are touched that Taro’s interest in joining our research team in the near future. A over-due group dinner to welcome our visitors and to celebrate Eileen’s and Daniel’s birthdays ensued after the busy day.
The dinner was an echo of another pleasant dinner with Taro, Dr. Takehiro Yasukawa and other colleagues in Tokyo back in this past February.
We hope to see you soon, Taro!
The newest hyper-spectral confocal is up and running
After a super efficient lab renovation, we welcomed our fourth microscope to our lab!
We had to knock down the benches, and re-route the plumbing systems, with a new sink installed.
Thanks to Patrick, our most helpful lab manager at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the renovation was fast and efficient.
Within a week, we created the space needed to accommodate the newly acquire Stellaris 8 from Leica. It boasts a wider range of super-continuum laser spectra than our Leica Sp8, which has been and will be the work horse in the MEOW lab. Equipped with 6 photon-counting detectors, ultrafast cameras and many more features, we cannot wait to use it for the new experiments. We are very excited!
Our 6-year old Leica SP8 system with white light laser, FLIM and many more features is the data producing instrument of the lab.
The brand new Leica Stellaris 8 will be added to our arsenal of developing new tools to advance biomedicine and bioengineering!
Tony wins the best poster award at the 18th Nano-Bio Symposium
Our committed and talented undergraduate research intern Tony Zheng was recognized for his excellent research, with the honor of the Best Poster Award at the 18th Nano-Bio Symposium. Tony has been working on the project in which we used a novel label-free interreference-based microscopy to study the dynamics of subcellular components, and to deduce the health state of cells and tissues. Tony’s poster, entitled “Ultrasensitive and Label-Free Measurement of Cellular Health State by Quantum-Limited Light Scattering”, made an impression among the symposium attendees and the poster judges! This ambitious project is a collaboration between our group and groups led by Prof. Warwick Bowen (University of Queensland) and Prof. Luo Gu (JHU). We are very pleased that Tony’s efforts were recognized. We look forward to report more interesting findings in an upcoming paper very soon. Congratulations Tony!
Thanks to Junjie’s documentation of this happy moment!